Hey LJ’s
So I have a piece of curly walnut that I am making in to a table. I have never worked with wood , so I am wondering if I should use a wood conditioner on it first. I was planing on useing good old tung oil. not sure if tung oil needs it.

be careful what kind of tung oil you use. I could be wrong, but I’m under the impression that “pure” tung oil can take months to cure or may never cure at all. Things like Formby’s tung oil finish are actually a varnish mixture and will cure much faster. Hopefully others can correct me if I’m wrong.

Tung oil will look beautiful – a couple of thinned coats followed by a couple of full-strength – a day between each is best especially for full-strength coats. You’ll get a soft satiny finish and the figure will stand out nicely. And HokieMojo is bang on – most “tung oil” is not tung oil at all. You’ll know by the very distinctive nutty smell, and it will continue to smell for a while after, like a couple of weeks. Use polymerized pure tung oil – unpolymerized will take forever to dry. Lee Valley sells both types. Mop up any puddling that occurs on the later coats – you want thin layers. The first couple will soak right in if thinned 50/50 and penetrate nicely to enhance the curl.

HokieMojo has a point. One of the polymerized tung oils (Moser’s or Sutherland Welles, etc.) or a tung oil varnish (nothing wrong with Formby’s) is a better choice IMHO. Or, use my favorite, WaterLox. I use WaterLox for all my house and furniture projects. It’s perhaps the most forgiving finish made, and can be applied for a matte, satin, or glossy finish. It can be cut back and polished to a mirror finish. You can also apply it with just about anything… brush, wipe, spray, old sock, anything. I even use it on floors, and it goes for years before needing a touch-up. For touch up, just sand a little and apply some more. Doesn’t get much easier than that.

To do a coffee table we would typically used about 200ml total finish for the first coat. Let it sit for 20 – 30 minutes and wipe it all off, we use blue shop towels to wipe it off. When you wipe wipe it all off, go back in 30 minutes and give it another rub down.

Just a suggestion for you, we’ve used this finish on almost every project we’ve built. This is the same recipe Sam Maloof used, I can not take any credit for it.